Last week Phil had the opportunity to join a group of CIOs and IT leaders from New Zealand’s not-for-profit sector to explore a challenge that is becoming increasingly familiar: how to meet growing demand, with constrained funding and resources, while continuing to demonstrate meaningful impact.
Thanks to Alix Clark and the team at New Zealand Red Cross for bringing the forum together and creating an opportunity for some practical discussion.
Alongside Chris Corke from CORUM and Stevo O’Rourke from OCULAR, we explored three complementary perspectives on where organisations can make real progress.
Getting more value from technology. CORUM challenged us to look harder at existing technology investments, supplier relationships and procurement practices. There are real opportunities to reduce duplication, improve commercial outcomes and access specialist expertise without necessarily adding headcount.
Turning fragmented data into useful intelligence. OCULAR demonstrated how connecting existing systems and information can reduce the burden of reporting, improve operational decisions and help organisations better demonstrate the impact of their work. Not everything needs another new system.
Building capability at scale. My contribution focused on three opportunities that I think deserve more attention:
Collective capability: Sharing learning platforms, resources and credentials across organisations and sectors. There are already compelling examples, internationally and here in New Zealand, of organisations reducing duplication while extending access to expertise.
AI as a capability enabler: Beyond individual productivity gains, AI is creating opportunities to dramatically reduce the cost of developing learning resources and to coordinate capability development across entire sectors.
Workforce skilling: Shifting from developing people against individual role-based competency profiles towards understanding the skills needed across a workforce, identifying gaps and targeting investment where it will make the greatest difference.
One theme connected all three presentations: doing more with less doesn’t necessarily mean asking people to work harder. It means finding better ways to use, connect and share the resources, information and expertise we already have.
And importantly, many of these opportunities aren’t theoretical. There are organisations already demonstrating what’s possible.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to the discussion, and to CORUM and OCULAR for bringing their perspectives and practical experience to the table.
#NotForProfit #DigitalTransformation #WorkforceCapability #AI #Leadership